You guys today I’ve got the most amazing from scratch, (non) refried bean recipe to share with you . Try to look past how they look and focus on the fact that with 9 pretty common ingredients and 8 hours in the crock pot… you can make your very own refried beans. Are you sold? Did I mention you do it all in a crock pot {and a pan but shhhuuuushhhh} and that they are WAY better than restaurant refried beans?

CONFESSION: I’m a pretty picky person when it comes to refried beans. They have to be smooth, with a little bit of bean throughout. I’m prefer the darker colored refried beans… some restaurants serve these light colored ones which always has me confused as to what beans those really are.

Oh and if you haven’t noticed, I’m on a little Cinco de Mayo kick as of lately. I have a few Cinco-esque recipes up my sleeve and it all started with these margaritas. So in the spirit of this time of year and because my husband has only been bothering me to make refried beans for like eight years now. I finally decided to do it. I mean, not because he begged me to or anything. Hey, I don’t want him to think he can just demand things and get his way. So, yeah… eight years it is. Take that Pat.

We stopped buying the canned refried beans a loooong time ago. Organic or not, it’s that whole congealed fat along of the perfectly can-shaped blob-called-beans that I find utterly grody. Please don’t misunderstand… I didn’t say that I don’t like fat… no-no that would be CRAZY… because infact there’s actually lard in this recipe. Lard… really, could there be a worser name for something so glorious {yeah I said worser}? All my bacon fat-savers know what I mean!! Lard is used for many delicious things like biscuits, carnitas and refried bean too… seriously, lard IS the new butter. Okay maybe not… but it’s something, boy is it ever. The smell of anything cooking in lard is amazing!

Dice up an onion. White or yellow… doesn’t really matter.

Then chop up a good sized green bell pepper…

…And 1 whole jalapeno. I made the mistake of using my thumbs to scrape out the ribs and seeds… lemme just tell you it burned like something fierce under my thumbnails. Like for HOURS.

Lastly, smash, peel and mince up 5 cloves of garlic.

HELLLOOOO lard. I had to laugh when my oldest daughter walked by and said “hey is that a tub of lard?!” I was quite offended until I realized it was the actual tub.of.lard. she was talking about. Ha-ha-he-he… ummm awkward.

Melt two tablespoons of lard into a 10 inch skillet on medium heat.

Throw in the peppers, onions and jalapeno.

Season with just a smidgen of salt. The salt will draw out the water and help soften the vegetables {I don’t know how I know this, but just go with it}… but don’t add too much because we’ll salt at the end of the bean making process.

This one is for my husband: beans beans the musical fruit, the more you eat… yeah. I won’t go on, but he bet me that I wouldn’t put that song in this post. So BOO-YA Pat!! Now you have to give me a 30 minute massage.

Before I add the beans to the crock pot, I go through them with a fine-toothed comb. You’ll find all sorts of things like grody beans, dirty beans and oh yeah… a rock. Awesome.

Once the coast was clear, I added the beans to my crock pot.

Then I season them with a quarter teaspoon of cumin…

Then an 1/8th teaspoon of ground chipotle powder.

Now the peppers and onions are soft and starting to brown…

Now I’d say it’s a good time to add in that minced garlic.

Cook for a minute or two before removing the pan from the heat.

And adding it on top of the perfectly inspected pinto beans.

Cover with 8 cups of water and stir it up a bit, for funsies. Cover and cook on HIGH heat for 8 hours. No need to lift the lid, stir or baby sit these. They take care of themselves all on their own!

After the 8 hours they look like this. Soft, plump and ready to be blitzed.

With your hand protected by oven mitts, lift out the crock pot “pot” and pour the beans and their juices into a strainer that is resting in a large bowl.

DO NOT throw away those beautiful bean juices. I’ll add anywhere from a 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of the juices back into the beans. It all just really depends on how thin or “loose” you want your beans to be, so go slow.

If you have one of those handy-dandy immersion blenders… this is another one of those recipes where it’ll come in handy. Work your way through the beans until just about blended.

When there’s still a few beans left to blend, is when I like to season the beans. You don’t want to add the salt to the crock pot because rumor has it, that it will make the beans tough and then you’ve just wasted 8 hours… and a lot of beans.

Blend a little bit more and then stir with a spatula to make sure that salt is evenly spread out through the beans.

Boom. You’re done.

Perfectly from scratch refried beans {minus the refried part} that are simply amazing. We love em’ in our house and put them on everything! Heck we use our tortillas chips and these beans act as as a dip! So flippin’ good you guys, you’ll never buy canned again!

Crock Pot Refried Beans

Easy to throw together, cooked all day in the slow cooker with the end result being the best non refried beans in town.

Yield:about 6 cups

Prep Time:15

Cook Time:8 hours

Total Time:8 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients:

3 cups Dried Pinto Beans

5 cloves Fresh Garlic, minced

1 medium Onion, chopped

1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped

1 Jalapeno, seeded and chopped

2 tablespoons Lard

1/4 teaspoon Cumin

1/8 teaspoon Chipotle Powder

8 cups Water

2 teaspoons Kosher Salt

Directions:

In a 10 inch skillet heat up 2 tablespoons of lard on medium heat. Once hot add the chopped onion, bell pepper and jalapeno. Saute for about 8 to 10 minutes until soft and translucent. Add minced garlic and cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat.

Sort through 3 cups of dried pinto beans removing any debris or cracked and grody looking beans. Add the beans, cumin,chipotle powder and sautéed vegetables to your slow cooker. Cover with 8 cups of water and cook on High for 8 hours, undisturbed.

After the 8 hours, remove and drain the beans with their liquid into a colander set into a large bowl. Transfer the beans to a clean bowl and add a desired amount of the bean liquids back in { I add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup} into the bowl with the beans. Using an immersion blender blend the beans until just about smooth Season with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt before continuing on. Use a rubber spatula and stir the beans to make sure the salt is throughout.

Serve right away or let cool before storing them in an airtight container and placing them in the fridge.

These beans should keep well for just under a week. If they last that long :).

This looks good – and I plan to try it. Soon. And cautioning people to be careful when using jalapenos or other hot peppers is important. I made salsa from scratch once and wanted to cut my hands off. Next time – I got gloves.

This looks amazing and really simple to do! I don’t have a crock pot though… Do you think it would be the same to cook the beans in boiling water for a shorter time on a regular stove? Or does the slow low-temp cooking make a difference in the texture? I think I might try a fava bean/cilantro version soon

By the way, not knocking your refried beans, just want to share how my mom taught me from border town.

•After you have gone through your beans, rinse well.
•Throw them in the crock-pot and cover with water following with the garlic clove(s), salt, onion powder (you could fresh onion or onion flakes). I sometimes toss in bacon (omit salt), if I have handy I will throw in serrano/jalapeño.
•Once they are ready – Get a pan hot with either lard/canola oil.
•When pan is hot ladle in the beans – there will be a sizzle going on.
•Reduce heat, and use a bean/potato masher and go to town mashing.
•The beans will thicken with the heat and keep stirring as you mash.
•Mash to consistency and serve….

OK. I heard The Most Interesting Man IN The World Cinco De Mayo commercial on the radio this morning and thought, “I wonder if I could make re-fried beans in the slow cooker??” AND HERE IT IS! Glorious

I made these tonight and all I can say is I’ll never go back to the canned stuff again! The recipe is so simple & delicious! The only thing I modified was I replaced the lard with EVOO since that’s what I had on hand. Thanks for posting this great recipe!

Thanks for this recipe. I decided to use it even after looking at several others I googled. Garlic is missing from the “Ingredients” list on the recipe so I had to scroll up to the picture for the amount – please update?

I have a batch going in the crock pot right now! I made a few tweaks. I didn’t have a serrano or jalapeno on hand so I used the red pepper flakes I did have. I also didn’t have chipotle powder but I did have chili powder so I used that. I also used more cumin and more chili powder because I used some in the onion/pepper mixture while it was sauteing. My kitchen smells absolutely wonderful!

This recipe can be made much quicker with similar results icooker.f you own a pressure cooker. Just soak the beans for 4-8 hours or overnight. Add the seasonings and enough water in the cooker to cover the drained beans. Let the cooker cook for 6 whistles (or pressure releases). After the pot cools, use the immersion blender to blend. We make it this way once a week!

Here turned out amazing, though a little spicy because I accidentally added about a whole teaspoon chipotle powder. But definitely a keeper . Going to try olive oil next time though. I felt so guilty using lard… Haha

Those look SO good. I think I’ll make them on the weekend coz my husband LOVES refried beans (the other month I came home and he’d tried to make them by just frying and mashing a can of kidney beans- disaster). What would be a good substitute for pinto beans? I’ve NEVER seen them over here.

I’ve been looking at lots of recipes for crock pot refried beans and this one looks wonderful! Just wondering how necessary the pre-cook in the skillet of the peppers and onions is. Is that step mainly for the flavor imparted by sauteing in fat? I love to simplify (and save dishes!) so would be tempted to just throw it all in the crockpot raw and let it go.

Also I remember reading somewhere peppers can take on a funky taste when slow cooked… though I see them in tons of recipes so maybe that was just a one-off case/opinion? Curious if anyone else has input about that.

Feel free to just throw it all in! I haven’t tried that… Probably because I still feel the need to cook even though it’s a slow cooker and should do the work for me. Good luck and let me know how it goes!

After you sort the beans and rocks RINSE.
Salt does hinder the softening process.
Used a pressure cooker and had refried beans in 3.5 hours.
Used a blender, yes it freezes great, Just make with a little less water

Hi Laurie,
Just had to add a comment. So glad I found this again. Bookmarked and subscribed this time. I tried this recipe awhile back and it was the second time I’ve made refried beans from scratch the first recipe was kind of a flop. I changed it a bit because I can’t handle the jalapeno or chipotle and I use olive oil instead of lard but other then that I kept it the same. It was a HUGE hit. My husband and I had just gotten into our new place and I”m a huge crockpot cooker because I can cook real food and still get things done that I need too. We had his brother and his wife over. Now my father-in-law is an AMAZING cook and I’m no slouch lol but the boys rave and rave about their dads food. I made these along with other things for my tacos and his brother stated that my tacos were better then his dads, my mouth just dropped! And my husband agreed (and we just celebrated our 2nd year anniversary so we’re still newlyweds so hearing that meant alot lol) Thank you for this very delicious and easy healthy recipe! I am looking forward to checking out your other recipes!

Hi Sabrina! That is AWESOME! I’m so happy to hear that! These beans can be accustomed to anyone’s preference… and I love that you switched it up for yours! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. You rock!

I would like to make these for pot luck rehearsal dinner. I was asked to bring refried beans. I have never attempted to make them before. There will be about 30 people. My question is should I double or triple the recipe and would the cook time be the same?

Two recommendations:
1. Reserve the sauteed vegetables until the last 90 minutes of cooking. Overcooked garlic loses its flavor and can become bitter. Also add another teaspoon of Cumin toward the end.
2. Instead of using a hand-blender, use a potato masher in the Crock Pot:
–Pour off most of the liquid and SAVE
–Mash beans
–Add back liquid to just cover the beans, SAVE the leftover liquid
–Let them cook for another hour and check a couple of times to see if they need more liquid.
3. The beans will thicken as they cool, so add the rest of the bean juice you saved before putting leftovers into the refrigerator or freezer.

yummy beans girl and a heads up for you – the lighter colored beans are thinned with milk, 1/2 and 1/2 or heavy cream in the final step. My favorite is 1/2 and 1/2. You can also add it to canned beans for a quick fix if you are in a hurry, along with a little cumin and chx. bouillon if you like.

You might want to caution that slow cookers (Crock-Pots) may now produce enough heat to reduce the levels of phytohaemagglutinin. This compound is naturally occurring and can increase by 5 times if dried beans are slow cooked. Boiling for 30 minutes will reduce these levels to safe ranges. Then slow cooking can continue. While this is a greater problem in kidney beans, it is in all beans. Safety and caution for all readers. Food poisoning is a horrible issue and knowledge prevents recurrence.

I doubled the recipe and have two pots going right now. I am making this to go with enchiladas and rice for a family of 9 at church that just had a baby and planning to set some aside for us. Prep time ended up taking me just over an hour because I had a baby strapped to my chest. I cant wait to see how this turns out! I left out the jalapeno all together since its largely going to feed kids and substituted chili powder for the chipotle powder

You’ve got one thing right You will never go back to canned. There is no reason to, home made are soooo good. I have made my own for years. I make a 4 lb bag in my 2 gallon pasta pot when I make them. (barely fits by the time they are done). I add either saved bacon grease or a ham hock/shank because I like the flavor. I live alone so package them in pint ziplocks, be sure to get ALL the air out and they will keep in the freezer for over a year. I can see how a crock pot would be great for a lot of people. I usually take a day or two every month or every other month to cook things to freeze, soups, stews and such. A fav is a nice chicken and veggie soup to freeze in servings, then I can make it with rice, noodles, dumplings, whatever strikes me that day.

I really like your recipe and the pictures. Can you tell me the best way to store the finished refried beans for more than one meal? Meal saver packets or canning jars in the freezer?? …method and good for how long?
Thank you

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Over the past few years I’ve been on a mission to find and create recipes that I can make from scratch. I hope you enjoy the recipes on this blog as they are tried and true from my kitchen to yours! (more)